Measure the resistance of that "Monster" wire, and compare it to a copper cable of the same length. You'll be surprised at how much current drop there is.

Yup. Read my reply on the bottom of page 2 as well.

I agree, and I think you need to go back and replace those with factory wires. I think we've actually found your problem. Even if it isn't the problem, this is now the number one thing you should want to rule out, and the best way to do that and get back to troubleshooting is to get your car back to factory.

Either order factory wires from a dealership, or see if you can get them from gmpartsdirect.com, or even pull them from a salvage yard.

You essentially rolled your own wires, and I should think that was probably more difficult than using the proper factory wires. You don't need to re-invent the wheel to fix this problem, but you do need to use the correct parts. Otherwise this is kind of like putting a tiny Volkswagon tire on one wheel and wondering why your car drives funny.

I actually do think this is the problem. Step 1: Get it back to factory wires. Order yourself some new ones if you can.

Also, I don't think measuring the resistance of the wires is going to help you or tell you anything important. Conductors generally have little to no resistance, and you'll be measuring it with an ohmmeter pushing negligible microamperes. The way your conductor will fail will be under load of heavy current. Then you'll see a voltage drop across it, or worse the wire will heat and catch fire. Don't get overinvolved measuring ohms that don't give you any useful information (we've already been down this road when you wanted to ohm-out lightbulbs). Just replace the wires with factory ones.

What'* the difference between non-GM precrimped wires and GM OE? I put in the Monster wire because I ran out of wires, but I'll change that out to OE. I noticed the OE wire has a cool neck on it that connects to the fuse panel, so I'll see if I can get it. I again don't have the shared digital camera, but I'd love to take some pictures of all this to show you how it looks.

Are you sure this could be causing the problem if nothing changed when I swapped out all the battery wires, the alternator, and three batteries? I assume you're making the point that these wires work as well as factory corroded wires, right?

The bottom line here is that when you troubleshoot something of this magnitude, using known good, STOCK components or OE equivalent components should be used.

What you have done is akin to using a paperclip as a fuse.

I have all the positive and negative power wires out of my 94 parts car, they have no corrosion. It would be a great starting point.

i think all this comes down to things need to be fixed the right way. rigging things up isnt going to solve or fix anything, only cause more problems.

No, I'm not sure of anything. But to actually solve an electrical problem, it makes sense to start from known issues and work down from there. With a Bonneville'* electrical system, it starts at the battery and then moves to wires to the starter, fuseblock, and ground. Then those go to their various subsystems.

To troubleshoot this, we start at the top: How'* your battery? -Well, it drains down overnight, but it'* new, and you've used a few new ones, so we'll presume that'* okay.

Next step: How'* the wires from the battery? What'* this, they're not factory wires? No, we don't like that because it is an unknown: I don't know what you used. You asked "What'* the difference from OEM wires?" I don't know exactly, because I don't know the specs of what you used, but the possibilities include: Guage, Material, Current Capacity, Resistance, Flamepoint, etc.

Do I want to gamble with those? Not when all you need to do to eliminate all of them is to use factory wiring. Why would you use anything else? What would be the point, or the advantage? Is it just that it costs less, or is it just out of convenience because it'* what you have, vs going and getting the right stuff? Salvage yards are cheap, another member has just offered wires, so I can't justify any expense or convenience. Just eliminate this and move on. It'* not worth the time to investigate light bulb sockets if the wires from the battery are suspect. Get it back to a known-to-be-good/correct state before moving on to the next step. It just doesn't make sense to consider further troubleshooting when you have non-stock main wiring. Your electrical problems may have nothing to do with these wires, but it'* important to eliminate this as a problem. Just put it back to stock wires, which should actually be easier and more convenient than using your own substitutes.

EXACTLY. Well-said.

This car is a nightmare of wiring, which is why we kinda jumped you on page 1 in the first place.

Don't ask about your lighting issues again until you have the power distribution issues fixed, and the battery fully charged.

I got the FSMs in today!

My battery has been on my trickle charger at 2A for over a week. I believe that should do it. The battery was on a chair in my living room.

T he factory wires have aluminum heads and are thin copper. These wires I have are all 4GA wires with really thick and juicy insulation. They're WAY thicker than stock. The connectors are aluminum wrapped around copper wires sticking out from the crimp from under the wire sheath. I don't like the Monster wire, either, and I will replace it as soon as I find the need to power up my 94.

I went with these wires because as I've said before, I've had the electrical problems with my OE wires. The connectors were only corroded on the metal parts that were exposed, but the connections were clean. I switched to these thick wires thinking it would solve the problems, but it didn't. I'd really rather not switch back to OE to see if that changes anything since I already know how my car runs with them - the same.

It'* not like I riced up my car with neon battery wires and weird lights all over the place. I did everything really well in about October. I think I posted about the electrical issues first in late August, and that was maybe a week or so into the problems. My friend'* dad let me park my car in his clean and heated garage so I could work on the electrical issue. I found absolutely no corrosion on the grounding blocks by the driver and passenger seats, and I found some corrosion on the OE wires. I replaced all those, but nothing changed.

I then started my car as usual and drove it home with my friend'* dad following me and carefully watching the half-voltage tail lights. The car has been here since about December, and I haven't driven it except to move it around on the driveway. It runs fine except for some weird oil pressure issue which happens every 2000 miles and may recur in the next 1000. If you really, honestly, truly believe that going to OE wires will absolutely help troubleshoot some case that has not changed during a change from OE to Advance Auto Parts, I'll do it.